Alton Post Office headed to former dealership

Linda N. Weller, lweller@civitasmedia.com

Published
5:58 pm CDT, Friday, September 4, 2015

Negotiations are underway for the U.S. Postal Service to lease the former Piasa Lincoln Mercury auto dealership building on the Homer Adams Parkway as the new home for the downtown Alton Main Post Office which is currently on Belle Street. less

Negotiations are underway for the U.S. Postal Service to lease the former Piasa Lincoln Mercury auto dealership building on the Homer Adams Parkway as the new home for the downtown Alton Main Post Office which ... more

Image
1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Negotiations are underway for the U.S. Postal Service to lease the former Piasa Lincoln Mercury auto dealership building on the Homer Adams Parkway as the new home for the downtown Alton Main Post Office which is currently on Belle Street. less

Negotiations are underway for the U.S. Postal Service to lease the former Piasa Lincoln Mercury auto dealership building on the Homer Adams Parkway as the new home for the downtown Alton Main Post Office which ... more

Alton Post Office headed to former dealership

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

ALTON — Forced to move, the U.S. Postal Service is negotiating a lease to relocate its Main Post Office along Homer Adams Parkway, several miles from its current Downtown location.

“We have not signed a lease agreement, we are doing our due diligence and design of what we need to do to the building,” said Marla J. Larsen-Williams, real estate specialist for the USPS Facilities Implementation Team in Carol Stream, Ill.

Larsen-Williams told The Telegraph that the team is negotiating a 10-year lease with renewal options with the Sakelaris family for the 2.95-acre, former Piasa Lincoln Mercury Inc. dealership, 2350 Homer Adams Parkway, Alton. She said the USPS might have an agreement in place in the next two- to three weeks. She notified Mayor Brant Walker about the decision several weeks ago.

“We are doing everything to keep the project on schedule, the lease at our current location expires May 31, 2016,” she said. A reporter was unable to contact Steve Sakelaris on Friday for comment.

Some people at the June 24 Alton City Council meeting, which Larsen-Williams attended, expressed a desire for the facility to remain Downtown. Larsen-Williams, though, said the USPS did look at several properties Downtown.

“Unfortunately, there was nothing available Downtown” to lease that would meet the postal service’s specific needs, Larsen-Williams said. She said in June that the USPS preferred a building with 12,000 to 15,000 square feet and 110 to 120 parking spots.

“I am just glad they are committed to staying in town,” Walker said Friday.

Records at the Alton Township Assessor’s Office say the former Piasa building was constructed in 1990 and has 18,652 square feet. Of that, 69 percent is warehouse space; 19 percent was for offices; and 12 percent was dedicated to the “store.”

“The challenge was two-fold, the size of the new location and visibility; and accessibility for trucks and customers,” she said. “The (proposed) location has a bit of separation for our patrons to park away from the trucks. The building is a little larger than planned, but we need the site size.”

Larsen-Williams had said at the City Council meeting that the USPS was holding a 30-day comment and appeal period. “I received no real comments,” she said, just a question from a Belle Street business owner.

The current Main Post Office, 727 Belle St., is 19,604 square feet. Constructed in 1966 and 1967, it has served the public for nearly five decades. Landlord Central Illinois Public Service Co. (d/b/a Ameren CIPS) does not plan to renew the lease.

Besides Downtown, there also are two other post offices in Alton — on the east side of the first floor of Alton Square shopping center; and at rear of Washington Square shopping center, 1624 Main St.

Larsen-Williams said the USPS later will evaluate future of those two locations, which are not far from the proposed, Main Post Office on Homer Adams Parkway.

Next year, the Belle Street building will be razed and the 1.47-acre property on which it sits will undergo remediation for coal and tar residue contamination. The materials had seeped deep into the ground from cylindrical gasholders storing manufactured gas from a plant that had occupied the site from 1855 to the late 1940s, said Brian Bretsch, Ameren communications executive in the Maryville office, in June.

“With Ameren owning the property, I know they will do a good job,” Walker said. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency will oversee the cleanup process and once it meets their approval, will issue Ameren a “No Further Remediation” document.

Alton Gas & Electric built its gas plant in 1855 on the Belle Street property, previously owned by Chicago and Mississippi Railroad Co. Alton Gas Co. then purchased the plant in 1926, then Union Electric Co. bought it in 1937. It ceased manufacturing the gas in 1941, Bretsch said.

Coal tars, coke and ash were residues resulting from the process, with the company selling the first two substances for other uses, but residue remains.